War in Europe?

[Coito ergo sum]

If the Euro breaks up, is more war in Europe possible?

It seems the traditional belligerents, GB, FR, Italy and Germany, have mended fences. But, is that true? Could we see more war among them?

The old Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up, and has been scuffling every so often ever since, the last time in the 1990s, with the Kosovo war, Serbia and Bosnia, etc. Could war spread to the rest of Europe?

Any thoughts? Are the Euros too grown up and enlightened for war among themselves these days?

[Rum]

I think the odds of it happening in any foreseeable scenario are vanishingly small.

Of course not everything is foreseeable!

[Seabass]

Well, you never know when or where those bloody Merkins might invade. Maybe Europe is next on the list...

[MrJonno]

War with what?. Would need to be a massive increase in defence spending for that to be viable and I have no idea where that money would come from

[Coito ergo sum]

When a German chancellor talks of the inevitability of war in Europe if he (or she) doesn't get his (or her) way, it would be remiss of the British to ignore it. It is not clear who we should infer will go to war against whom, but Chancellor Merkel's observation is ominously similar to the threat made by her predecessor Chancellor Kohl, who once said: 'The future will belong to the Germans...when we build the house of Europe... In the next two years we will make the process of European integration irreversible. This is a really big battle, but it is worth the fight.’ A CDU document from 1994 explained: ‘Never again must there be a destabilizing vacuum of power in central Europe.
If European integration were not to progress, Germany might be called upon, or tempted by its own security constraints, to try to effect the stabilization (a word replete with unpleasant historical echoes) on its own, and in the traditional way.’ Kohl asserted his conviction that if there were no further European integration, there may well be war.

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/ ... e-war.html

[Audley Strange]

The concept of a Federal Europe seemed to me like a move forward, but the cavalier attitude in which it invited new members without stringent investigations into applicants economic status and attitude meant it was almost inevitable that certain impoverished nations would cook their books to join in the gravy train.

IIRC the whole concept of a Centralised European State was the dream of Mitterand and Kohl precisely to put an end to war in Europe.

Might be interesting in the long run since I'm bored shitless of English football commentators comparing every game against Germany and Italy as a subset of WW2

[Jason]

China and Russia conquer and make a vassal state of the USA. Canada signs a free trade agreement and mutual defence treaties with both Russia and China. The price of noodles goes down, employment rates go up, massage parlours boom, and there is much rejoicing.

I, for one, welcome our new Russian-Asian overlords.

[Clinton Huxley]

No chance. As the Libyan campaign showed, no European power can conduct any military operation without significant US support. So unless the US lends us drones, refuelling aircraft, AWACS planes and ammunition, the worst we can do to each other is pull faces.

[Jason]

Nero fiddled.

[Horwood Beer-Master]

Why single out Europe? It could happen in the US if the culture wars were to hot-up.

Suppose a president were to enter office who the reality-deficient teabagger-types liked even less than Obama?

[Clinton Huxley]

Why single out Europe? It could happen in the US if the culture wars were to hot-up.

Suppose a president were to enter office who the reality-deficient teabagger-types liked even less than Obama?

We'd be seeing Seth's compound on the news.....

[Coito ergo sum]

Why single out Europe?

Because I felt like talking about Europe, and because Europe has a very rich military history on its continent, whereas in North America there have been wars of independence, and wars against the indigenous populations, but there have been comparatively few and relatively minor wars among the North American nation-states.

It could happen in the US if the culture wars were to hot-up.

Sure, but I felt like talking about Europe, due to its nearly continuous warring between nation-states, city-states, principalities, kingdoms and empires for the last, oh, 1200 to 1500 years. The last few decades of relative peace, broken by warring in the Balkans, is somewhat of an anomaly.

Suppose a president were to enter office who the reality-deficient teabagger-types liked even less than Obama?

I didn't realize that discussing the current state of the Eurozone in light of its military history to examine whether there was any real likelihood of more war in Europe among the traditional belligerents involved American politics.

I would think, though, that war on the North American continent would likely arise from two main sources: (1) a break up of the US due to economic forces, having little to do with "teabaggers", and then resulting squabbles among the pieces of the former United States; (2) a US incursion into Mexico in response to rampant violence spilling across the US-Mexico border which the Mexican government couldn't or wouldn't address sufficiently. But, that's for a different thread.

[Coito ergo sum]

Jeebus -- Trippy Mc Triplicate!

[Coito ergo sum]

Doopy McDooplicate

[amused]

Doesn't being all socialist negate any chance of going to war with each other? Too enlightened for that, compared to we barbarians in the US? Wouldn't want to break a nail....